The Gastrocast

Here is a short film about succession planting salad greens, part of a new “Credit Crunch Lunch” series.

Technorati Tags: gardening, salad, vegetables, farming, soil, planting, seeds, podchef, wiggly wigglers

Gastrocast Fans! Do not despair…

Due to computer breakdowns & a busy schedule I have not been able to produce a regular show. However, a new laptop has arrived and I am working on a new show and a new video series.

Something should be out soon, I hope. In the meanwhile, catch up on past shows. Watch the videos. Or check out what I am doing right now on Twitter.

Thanks again for listening to The Gastrocast and I hope Rowan & I will enjoy your continued support!

Technorati Tags: Rowan, podchef, gastrocast, videos, delay

A rare show…More cooking, farm life & political food news.

You can listen to, or download the show here:

Or consider subscribing to the podcast for free.

Links for this week’s episode:

• The Gastrocast Blog
• Gastrocast Forum
• The Kitchen Garden Network
• Our Service Provider: 1&1 Internet Hosting
• R-Calf USA
• Facebook Profile
• Photos
• News:
  • Does Egg Size Matter?
  • HR875 Facts or Fiction
  • Invasive Bugs for Invasive Weeds?

Technorati Tags: gastrocast, podchef, food, farming, dairy, pigs, chickens, gardening, cooking, cooking show, culinary podcast, rabbit

A show! A show! Piglets, chicks, seasonal growing tips and Lavender Madelines.

You can listen to, or download the show here:

Or consider subscribing to the podcast for free.

Links for this week’s episode:

• The Gastrocast Blog
• Gastrocast Forum
• The Kitchen Garden Network
• Our Service Provider: 1&1 Internet Hosting
• R-Calf USA
• Facebook Profile
• Photos
• News:

Technorati Tags: piglets, hogs, pigs, chicks, chickens, laying hens, livestock, farming, agriculture, gardening, podchef, gastrocast, food, cooking, lavender madelines, baking

Finally, a new Show! I’ve been really busy, as you will here. In fact, so busy I don’t have time to put up show notes right now. Enjoy!

You can listen to, or download the show here:

Or consider subscribing to the podcast for free.

Links for this week’s episode:

• The Gastrocast Blog
• Gastrocast Forum
• The Kitchen Garden Network
• Our Service Provider: 1&1 Internet Hosting
• R-Calf USA
• Facebook Profile
• Photos
• News:

Technorati Tags: milking, cows, dairy, cheese, ricotta, dessert, cooking, culinary podcast, cooking show, cooking school, podchef, gastrocast

During the recent spate of good weather I got busy and fixed the failing polytunnel. Join me for the adventure and learn how to do it yourself!

Technorati Tags: polytunnel, greenhouse, hoop house, gardening, farming, agriculture, horticulture, grow your own, DIY, podchef

This week’s show is the first, post-holiday and is packed with updates. Lots going on. Podchef talks about gardening, a horrible bout of bad weather, the polytunnel, forcing rhubarb,  and much more before getting stuck into making a fish pie.

You can listen to, or download the show here:

Or consider subscribing to the podcast for free.

Links for this week’s episode:

• The Gastrocast Blog
• Gastrocast Forum
• The Kitchen Garden Network
• Our Service Provider: 1&1 Internet Hosting
• R-Calf USA
• Facebook Profile
• Photos
• News:
  • Fumigate ‘Em Till Their Dead
  • Italy’s Poor Eat Expensive Cheese
  • Soiling the Earth’s Skin
  • Big Organic Support for Big Ag Bio Secretary

Technorati Tags: fish pie, farming, organics, peak soil, agriculture, gardening, grow your own, rhubarb forcing, podchef, gastrocast

In their annual Christmas caper, The Wife & Daughter appear in Kitchen Studio to whip up some mayhem and a Buche de Noel.

Technorati Tags: dessert, baking, cooking, buche de noel, yule log, holiday, christmas

Here’s a short film to cheer the mid-winter soul. I meant this as a Christmas greeting of sorts, but it’s a bit late, as usual. The sentiment remains the same though!

Technorati Tags: winter, snow, smallholding, farming, agriculture, gardening, podchef, gastrocast, cooking, pigs, slaughter, smoking meat, smokehouse, food preservation, madness

Just in time for Christmas, a totally non-Christmasy show!  This time we re-visit corning beef with Brisket of Torino, and we talk about news and weather.

You can listen to, or download the show here:

Or consider subscribing to the podcast for free.

Links for this week’s episode:

• The Gastrocast Blog
• Gastrocast Forum
• The Kitchen Garden Network
• Our Service Provider: 1&1 Internet Hosting
• R-Calf USA
• Facebook Profile
• Photos
• News:
  • Thawing Turkeys on the Counter Oh My!
    • Is it Best to Ignore Government Advice (hint: yes & always)
  • New Old Use for Wool
  • Venison Pizza Anyone?
  • Beware, the Pot Pie is Deadly
  • EPA: What Cow Fart Tax?
  • The Irish & Their Toxic Cows & Pigs
    • Oil to blame?

Technorati Tags: podchef, gastrocast, food, cooking, cooking show, culinary podcast, agriculture, farming, gardening, beef, brisket, steer, grassfed, corned beef, food preservation

This week’s show is a few days later than I wanted. Lot’s going on. I hope you will enjoy it. In #160 we talk about Guerrilla Gardening, ordering seeds, the hot food-news topics and I give you my mother’s Fruit Cake Recipe.

You can listen to, or download the show here:

Or consider subscribing to the podcast for free.

Links for this week’s episode:

• The Gastrocast Blog
• Gastrocast Forum
• The Kitchen Garden Network
• Our Service Provider: 1&1 Internet Hosting
• R-Calf USA
• Facebook Profile
• Photos
• News:
  • Deer Attacks Hunter
  • China’s Milk Industry Goes Sour
    • Uncounted Deaths From Milk Scandal
  • Pilgrim’s Pride Poultry Profits Plummet
  • Chicken Shit Fouls MD Waters
  • FrankenFoods Pushed on Poor & Hungry

Technorati Tags: china, tainted milk, frankenfoods, bioengineered crops, gm foods, pilgrim’s pride, gastrocast, podchef, food, farming, cooking show, culinary podcast, cooking school, agriculture, gardening, vegetable seeds, guerrilla gardening, allotments, fruitcake

This week’s show is here. The Zoom h4 is working great, but I’m still working on getting the right sound in Kitchen Studio. This week there’s news, life on Podchef Island, The Demise of Pinkie Winkie, and a Swiss Chard, Bacon & Kale mega-quiche.

You can listen to, or download the show here:

Or consider subscribing to the podcast for free.

Links for this week’s episode:

• The Gastrocast Blog
• Gastrocast Forum
• The Kitchen Garden Network
• Our Service Provider: 1&1 Internet Hosting
• R-Calf USA
• Facebook Profile
• Photos
• News:
  • CT Olive Oil Standards
  • Tax on Cow Farts
  • Your Baby, Melimine, & The FDA

Technorati Tags: slaughter, butchering, pigs, pork, podchef, gastrocast, Cow Tax, quiche, food, cooking, baking, swiss chard, kale

Will this decade see the end of Agrarian Farming? Certainly I am not the only writer, farmer, eater-of-things-grown to pose this question in the past 20, 30, or 40 years, but for some reason this year, at this time, it seems like the cards are stacked against the small farmer and market gardener in a way like never before.

In order to have nutritious, wholesome foods with a low carbon imprint, from as close to their source as possible for both freshness, and flavor we must see a resurgence of a local, agrarianism which has long been under the heel of the Agri-Industrial complex. At a time when “local”, “Seasonal”, and “Sustainable” are the current buzz words there seems to be a tide of opposition to these movements both in the industrial food sector, and by very partnership, the government.

Two things came to me this week, and I am still reeling in trying to grasp their meaning. The first is a completely non-sensical plan by the EPA to tax Cow Farts.  Yes, in an overzealous attempt at seeming to do something rather than nothing in the face of Global Climate Change, a government agency has written yet another blanket, one-size-fits-all mandate. This very plan will only serve to benefit the Industrial-Agricultural complex in squashing their minor, but annoying counterpart–the organic and sustainable small farmer. It will do this for two reasons. Firstly I am sure there will be exemptions for Big-Ag, carbon-offsets and the like, and secondly, the fines and fees for this carbon tax seem to be orchestrated to penalize the very people who are trying to make a difference.  By making no distinction between grass-fed cattle, which do not create nearly the toxic gas problem, and Feed-lot cattle, which cause numerous biological and environmental problems, an unfair playing field is struck. Most organic, grass-fed, carbon sensitive farmers do not receive government subsidies to do their honorable work. They would pay the tax wholly out of pocket and totally unfairly as they are a major part of the solution and not the problem. Meanwhile, one might suppose that there will be hand-outs, exemptions and the like for the subsidy driven Industrial Agriculture model so that the taxes won’t seem to cut into the marginal operations that feed-lots have become. No thanks. It won’t solve the problem and it will make the growing food crisis in this country far worse before it becomes better. But then, perhaps the EPA has been talking to my local county Health Department. . . .

I am still verifying the facts, but as they have come to me, certain members of our local government are recommending that citizens and business NOT buy local! They are on a campaign against local farmers and local foods, not because of any outbreak, or seeming disaster–there have been none. But purely for the inane reasons that “local” isn’t regulated and Industrial is. If it comes from a far and is wrapped in plastic and passed through all the right channels, then it seems it is Okay to be served in restaurants. This is putting a crimp in a local foods campaign whereby restaurants commit to using a certain percentage of local produce and meats in their cooking in order to participate in a Certified Local scheme. I just cannot fathom the sort of persons who think that industrial is better than local, or home grown when they are exposed to the quality we have here locally. It is beyond reason and unacceptable. These things must change if we are to survive into the future with safe, bio-secure, wholesome, edible foods.

Technorati Tags: agrarianism, local foods, sustainability, peak oil, epa, cow tax, global warming, climate change

Here’s a little film which has been in the works for a short while. A day in the baking life of our wood fired, masonry oven. Enjoy!
Note: The sound actually matches the video on this one. Sorry for any confusion earlier!

Technorati Tags: podchef, gastrocast, wood oven, wood-fired oven, masonry oven, baking, bread, dough, cooking, self-sufficiency, sustainability

This week’s episode is here!  The new Zoom H4 gets its test drive in this slightly longer show. In addition, a new oven has arrived in Kitchen Studio. I managed to score a new but never installed oven off of Craig’s List for a fraction of the cost and it works brilliantly.  We use it to make Profiteroles filled with Quince.

You can listen to, or download the show here:

Or consider subscribing to the podcast for free.

Links for this week’s episode:

• The Gastrocast Blog
• Gastrocast Forum
• The Kitchen Garden Network
• Our Service Provider: 1&1 Internet Hosting
• R-Calf USA
• Facebook Profile
• News:
  • To follow

Technorati Tags: Podchef, Gastrocast, cooking, food, farming, agriculture, baking, profiteroles, dessert, quince,   pastry cream, cream puffs, zoom h4